Details: 2016 Jaguar XJ

17 Jun 2015

Last week BMW released first images and details of their next generation 7 Series. And as you’ll agree, it looks pretty magnificent. The folks at Jaguar however felt they needed to remind the world of their relevance in the large luxury saloon ambit too, releasing specifications of their revised XJ.

On the styling front the changes are minor, with subtle tweaks here and there. Perhaps this isn’t a bad thing, as the flagship Jaguar still looks contemporary – testament to how well the forward-looking design approach has served them. A new 3.0-litre V6 diesel has been thrown into the mix, producing 220kW and 700Nm of torque. This is compared to 202kW and 600Nm in the derivative it replaces. In addition, you will still be able to pick from the familiar array of petrol V6 and V8 mills. An eight-speed automatic transmission from ZF does duty across the board. Under the skin, the XJ has adopted electric power steering, promising greater feedback and efficiency.

But most interesting is the integration of a smarter infotainment system – this is an area where the outgoing XJ lacks. The new system is called InControl Touch Pro and it runs a quad-core Intel processor. Jaguar says it can handle massive amounts of data and is exceptionally responsive. The system employs an eight-inch touchscreen and the whole experience was designed to be similar to operating a smartphone. There are wallpapers, widgets too. And it responds to pinches and strokes. There is more in the way of driver assistance systems as well, including a traffic sign recognition nanny, autonomous parking assistant and adaptive cruise control.

The upgraded Jaguar XJ is expected to arrive in South Africa before the end of the year.